


Love Lost

by ButterFlyEffect



Category: Shiki - Fandom
Genre: Corpse Demon, F/M, Jinrou, vampire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-31
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-03-09 21:18:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3264665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ButterFlyEffect/pseuds/ButterFlyEffect
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the shock of loosing a person you love, how would you react if you found out that they weren't dead at all? An unexpected encounter with such a person leads to an even more unexpected situation.</p><p>Natsuno Yuuki x Reader</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Lost

You felt your lip curl in horror and your legs turned to jelly as you stared back at the taller male. Your heart had begun to pound and an ice-cold shudder ran down your spine.

Natsuno looked equally shocked. Both of you stood stock-still, eyes fixed on each other. The dusty summer wind creaked through the pine trees in the dark of the night on either side of you.

“Yuu… ki?” you whimpered disbelievingly. “You? You are one of them?” Your voice sounded thin and cracked, and rasped in your throat. You wondered if this was inevitable. After all, he was killed by one of them, wasn’t he? The fact this he stood across the path from you, only four of five metres away was proof that he had become one of the blood-sucking vampire-like creatures, known as Shiki.

You weren’t currently sure what to think or how to react. Should you be joyful that he wasn’t gone for good? Or sad that he was no longer human? You were conflicted and seemed to feel both at once.

“You weren’t supposed to see me,” he replied coldly. He didn’t even blink. His eyes were dark and expressionless.

“It’s hard not to notice when I’ve been hearing you following me for the past mile or so,” you mumbled. You sounded vaguely hysterical to your own ears. You could only hope that Natsuno wasn’t able to tell just how shattered you felt.

After you had found out that he had died a week ago, you hadn’t slept, hadn’t eaten, and had barely noticed when the final member of your previously large family –your father – disappeared. After witnessing the boy’s slow demise, you had finally been convinced of the nature of the attacks and had sunk into a sort of tired, depressed existence. Now that he was standing in front of you, as if nothing had ever happened, you just seemed to feel empty.

He merely snorted. He sounded impatient.

“I don’t have time to explain everything to you now,” he hissed, stepping closer to you. He stopped only a few centimetres from you, standing nose to nose with you. “Just forget you saw me.” His breath fanned lightly over your face and when you inhaled you could smell his scent, this time mingled with an earthy, leafy smell.

Wait, breath? He was a shiki wasn’t he? He shouldn’t be breathing, should he?

“You’re… you’re breathing,” told him dumbly. Your tongue felt thick in your mouth and your eyes stung. You wondered if you were dreaming, but decided that you ached too much for it to be a dream. Despite the feeling of surrealism surrounding the scene; everything seemed too vivid, too vibrant to be a dream.

He sighed. “I know. Listen, I really don’t have time.” His dark eyes flickered from side to side and he was shifting his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. You couldn’t speak. Nothing but a jumbled mess of words came to mind.

Natsuno sighed, his breath ruffling your hair slightly and then stepped past you and began to walk away along the path. It was as though seeing his back striding away from you snapped you back into action. Stretching out an arm you called out: “Yuuk… No, Natsuno!”

The leaves stopped crunching under his feet as he stopped in his tracks at the mention of his first name. Slowly, his eyes turned to you. He looked strained.

“(L/n), you can’t be near me,” he told you calmly. “I’m hungry.”

You stared at him blankly. You weren’t sure what to say. But you knew you had to say something, if just to stop him from leaving you again.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” His tone was completely unlike his usual prickly self. He sounded as if he were pleading – pleading for you to let him be.

“I don’t care!” you shouted suddenly, surprising even yourself. Your eyes watered and threatened to overflow at any minute. “If, it’s blood you need, take mine! But please… Please don’t go away again.”

He stared at you. Dead silence hung in the air after your sudden outcry. Leaves rustled in the wind. You refused to break eye contact with the boy, but your cheeks felt hot and your breathing and heartbeat were accelerated.

He was the first to look away. “Don’t patronise me,” he snarled finally. “What is that expression? Pity? I don’t need your pity.”

“NO!” you were almost shouting now. You felt desperate. Even despite his harsh nature, outbursts were out of character for him and it both concerned and frightened you. The tears that had been threatening to overflow finally spilled. Your vision swam, but you seemed to have lost control of your own tongue, bubbling out thoughts at random: “I don’t pity you! I just… I’m sorry, you know? Sorry that you’re in this situation, sorry that you’ll never leave here and go to school in Tokyo, sorry that my entire family is dead! I want to help you and I don’t want loose you again because you’re important to me.”

You took a deep breath, your breath hitching as you did and continued: “The thing is, I’m sorry, but I think… I think I love you. I have for a while now. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you to think I was like her. I wasn’t going to either, but I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore. Not anymore…”

Your legs wobbled. The sleepless nights and the near-constant stress and fear for your life had taken its toll and you felt shattered. Now exposed to this kind of shock, you felt empty and drained, ready to collapse.

But before your limbs gave away entirely a strong hand gripped your arm and pulled you forwards. Chapped, yet warm lips met your own. Your eyes sprang open wide and let out a little gasp. You were surprised sure, but somehow this situation seemed natural, as if it had been waiting to happen all along. You closed your eyes and just enjoyed the warmth of the moment.

Eventually though you had to pull away for air, leaving you both panting. You dried your tears with your sleeve, suddenly self-conscious of the dark circles under your eyes and your tangled hair. Your face was on fire and suddenly you found it difficult to look into Natsuno’s eyes, but in the end that wasn’t a problems. Arms pulled you into a tender embrace.

“You’re not like her,” he mumbled into your ear. “For one, I like you much better.” His voice was still quiet and controlled, but it had a certain warmth now that it hadn’t carried before.

Like this, you tried to imagine yourself in a different situation. Supposing you hadn’t met in a secluded small town. Supposing you didn’t have to stay at your family’s shrine for the rest of your life while Natsuno was planning to leave for the city. And supposing there were no blood-sucking vampires howling for your blood.

But if there had been no chance of you ever getting close to each other before, there was certainly no chance now. You buried your face into the boys shirt, inhaling his scent and trying to forget everything. And just for a moment, maybe you could.

*****

“I see… So you’re a jinrou then? And that’s why you haven’t really changed much,” you repeated out loud, party to check that what you have heard is right and partly to try and wrap your own head around the situation.

Natsuno nodded in affirmation. The pair of you were sitting in the old tree house inside your house. It was really just a small wooden box with a ladder leading up to where it sat in the tree, but in the moonlight it always felt almost magical and very intimate, with moonlight flooding through the crack in the woodwork and through the small window. It gave you just enough light to see Natsuno’s face in the dark. You both sat opposite the entrance, curled up warmly together in a single thick blanket, which did a good job of keeping you warm along with each others combined body heat.

“Yes,” he spoke up thoughtfully. Then his face darkened: “But listen, if I don’t drink blood – human blood – then I will loose the privledges of a jinrou. That is why,” he added quietly. “When we destroy their kind, I will die with them.”

You jolted and pulled away suddenly, looking up at him. “No,” you whispered. “You can’t!”

“I have to,” Natsuno replied firmly, but that didn’t keep the hint of sadness from his tone.

You shook your head violently. “No, I won’t let you! We can figure something out, like I said! I’ll… You can have my blood! I promise. We can leave here and then…” For the second time that evening your eyes were stinging. You could hardly remember the last time you had cried so much within such a short time span.

“(Name)…” he sounded decided, but in his voice you could detect the slightest hint of a wobble. “You know I can’t do that. I need to finish this.”

You couldn’t help it. You were full on crying again. You could feel the salty tang on your tongue and the moonlight swam in your gaze. Natsuno, who obviously wasn’t sure how to handle a crying girl, tried patting you gently on the shoulder. You sniffed.

“Sorry, I should be the one keeping it together here,” you mumbled, grinning slightly through your sobbing. But it was all becoming too much. These last few days a storm had been growing up inside you. A storm caused by fear, exhaustion and grief and it was finally breaking. While you felt slightly embarrassed at your meltdowns, you also felt relieved because it felt as though the tension was finally releasing its hold over you.

Natsuno didn’t directly reply, but shuffled closer to you again and awkwardly rearranged the blanket around you. 

Finally he answered: “I’ll be around for a few days.” He was trying. You smiled just a little.

“Please stay with me,” you hiccupped quietly. Maybe then you could pretend everything would be okay, just for a bit. He shifted next to you and stiffly patted your head. You could tell gestures of affection weren’t really his thing.

“Yeah,” was all he said, but for now it was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Haahh... I rewatched Shiki a few weeks ago and the wrote this, but forgot about it, so I'm uploading it now!
> 
> I really feel like Natsuno ended up being a bit out of character in this, but oh well... It's just a fanfic right? It doesn't have to be perfect!
> 
> On a side note I've been watching Baccano recently and after my exams I'm thinking of maybe doing a reader x Claire Stanfield? But I don't know... He would be a really hard person to write for. ^^'


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